Crumbling Ecologies Nominated for Art Prize

It is my pleasure to announce that Crumbling Ecologies has been shortlisted for the
 2013 Manningham Ceramic Art Prize. 


Exhibition Opening and Judge's Presentation
6 - 8pm Wednesday 10 July, 2013 - everyone welcome

Exhibition Dates10th of July - 17th of August 2013. 

 You can find out more about gallery and location by clicking (here).
 

About the Award
The Manningham Victorian Ceramic Art Award, developed by Manningham City Council, was established in 2009 to support Victorian ceramic artists and acknowledge the special place that ceramics has in Manningham and the region’s history.
 
This biennial award exhibition surveys current Victorian ceramic art practice and showcases ceramic artists from Manningham and the other Valley of the Arts partners – Maroondah, Nillumbik, and Banyule.
 
The acquisitions will assist in the development of Manningham City Council’s collection of Victorian ceramic art.


 About the Artwork Shortlisted 

 

Crumbling Ecology was the last work to emerge from the devolved Monash Ceramics Studio; a response from Jasmine Targett one of the artists impacted by the closure. 

The work had two distinct aims, the first in its concept, the second in its creation. The concept interrogated the central argument used to justify the closure; that ceramics is out-dated and no longer relevant to contemporary art. The second was to strengthen the industry by inviting artists to contribute. Contributing to the work enabled artists to gain tech skills, network and stimulate independent professional practice. Made with the help of over 100 artists around Australia, Crumbling Ecology, is an installation of hundreds of delicate hand cast porcelain geranium leaves on the brink of crumbling.

In Melbourne, geraniums sit ambiguously between a plant and a weed deriving connotations of being out-dated, this narrative echoes reasoning to dismiss ceramics from contemporary arts practice.

The Crumbling Ecology unable to regenerate sits within a tenuous space. On the brink of crumbling, the geraniums embody the story of their makers- the artists, teachers and students impacted by the nationwide arts-sector cutbacks. Porcelain is a material known for its strength; using it in this way comments on the impact the loss of educators (and the knowledge their hands pass on) will have on the industry, reflecting on the beauty and integrity of ceramic practice compromised.

The Skills Swap Meet

The Skills Swap Meet Workshop embraces the generous tradition of the Craft Community, facilitating a free environment for sharing knowledge and skills while getting to meet some amazing artistic people outside your circle.

Our first workshop was held from 10am - 3pm on Saturday 28th April in Craft Victoria's Library Space.....

The Facilitators

Sharon Clues
Skill - Machine Knitting



The Workshop - How to machine knit Sharon's custom design Crescent Scarf. (Pictured Left)

About - Sharon Clues is a Melbourne based textile artist with a passion for natural fibers & fabrics. she is the owner and creator of ethelruby –a luxury knit label & is currently studying textile design at RMIT.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ethelruby
http://sclues.blogspot.com.au/
sclues@gmail.com

Emma Grace
Skill - Re-Fabricating Broken Costume Jewellery




Workshop - Participants are invited to fix or re-create broken or un-loved costume-jewellery and found objects into something new and unique.

Materials - All your old, broken and unloved costume/fashion jewellery and any other interesting bits and bobs you have lying about – you never know what might come in handy! 

About - Emma Grace is a maker of contemporary jewllery and founder of The Treasury, a jewellery fixing and re-creation workshop aimed at promoting sustainability within the fashion industry. Her work is avaialble at Craft Victoria and e.g.etal and her next solo show will be held at e.g.etal in August 2012.

http://emmagracejewellery.wordpress.com/the-treasury/
www.emmagrace.com.au
enquiries@emmagrace.com.au

Sandra Eterovic
Skill - Fair Isle Knitting




The Work Shop - Participants will be given a copy of the paper graph for my 'Rags to Riches' scarf design. They will learn how to change colours within a row of knitting and how to follow a grid pattern.

Materials - 2 balls of contrasting yarn in the same gauge, preferably smoothly textured. Knitting needles to suit. A ruler and a pencil, for marking the pattern. I am assuming that participants will have basic knit/ purl knitting skills. It would be preferable for participants to have a couple of rows of knitting done before we start, but it's not necessary.

About Sandra - I am interested in the facades that our society encourages and the less comfortable things that lurk beneath. I enjoy exploring different materials, and am currently making painted wooden cut-outs, knitting, and considering exploring clay again.

sandraeterovic.blogspot.com
sandeterovic@gmail.com


We had a delightful day crafting, laughing and getting upto lots of making mischief!
Here is the bounty from our first Skills Swap Meet-















If your interested in being a workshop Facilitator or participating in another Skills Swap Meet - email jasminetargett (at) hotmail.com

Crumbling Ecologies Revealed....

Showing at Craft Victoria till Saturday June 9th.......

Crumbling Ecology, 2012.
Porcelain.

The last work to emerge from the now ‘devolved’ Monash Ceramic Studio, Crumbling Ecology is a large ephemeral installation made from over 35,000 hand made porcelain geraniums.

On the brink of crumbling, the porcelain geraniums embody the story of their makers- the artists, teachers and students directly impacted. Porcelain is a material known for its strength; using the material in this way comments on the loss of educators and the knowledge their hands pass on. Commenting on the beauty and integrity of craft that is soon to be lost, the ecology unable to regenerate, sits within a tenuous space. The outcome of the work and its value will be determined by the audience’s response...

Viewers are invited to take a leaf and pay what you think it is worth.

This work has been made by Jasmine Targett with the assistance of over 100 volunteering artists, crafters, students, teachers, curators and creative fellows in Victoria and New South Wales.

The Makers –
VIC
Jasmine Targett, Sharon Clues, Sally Cleary, Rebecca Mayo, Anthony Conway, Caroline Brandt, Jacinta Richardson, Stephanie Watson, Thomas Ryan, Atika Fraval, Janice Kent-Mackenzie, Rebecca Norris, Phoebe Norris, Shelley Grayden, Susannah Larritt, Cat Finnerty, Ian Wadley, Rebecca Delange, Adele Macer, Annette Martin, Julia Storey, Wen Shobbrook, Annie Quail, Elise Sheehan, Naomi Troski, Ri Van Veen, Lucy Hall, Sophie Harle, Ella Leoncio, Susan Frisch, Georgia Lancaster, Rosanna Cladwell , Kobie Nel, Ulla Britta Westergren, Kathryn de Jesus, Di Richardson, Jenna Wilson, Gabbie Hoff, Beka Hannah, Pauline Meade, Carmen Couche, Yanrong Wu, Simone Steel, Suse Scholem, Sinead Kennedy Tammy Warner, Annie Dowd, Miriam McGarry, Sari Harris, Sharyn Masson, Kristen Miller, Dee Strandly, Rachel Berry, Jacqueline Vermer, Cindy Leech, Declan Donald, Friederike Heinsdorff-Neill, Kim Davis, Sue Lawson and Laura Elphinstone.

NSW
Liane Rossler, James McCallum, Bridget Kennedy, Corrine Fisher, Hannah Fisher, Emilie Fisher, Jude Belnick, Maddy Ghosh, Ximena Tapia, Zeynep Bayraktar, Canbora Bayraktar, Rose Daridis, Brooke Thompson, Beau Thompson, Lucie Macany, Zoe Brand, Melanie Ihnen, Nina Still, Tilly 

For more details on all of the works check out the new work's gallery -
http://www.crumblingecologies.blogspot.com.au/p/works-gallery.html

The Beauty of Weeds - New Images!

The Beauty of Weeds, 2012.
Regenerated plant waste, hand blown glass and salvaged furniture from ‘devolved’ studio space.

The Beauty of Weeds is that “a weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill” [1]... they just keep growing. 

[1] Doug Larson – Door County Advocate USA 

Lip Magazine Feature Article! Crumbling Ecologies: Craft, Community, Community

Lip Magazine's awesome reporter Emma Koehn has published a new article on the project - Crumbling Ecologies: Craft Community, Fragility.

http://lipmag.com/arts/art-arts/crumbling-ecologies-craft-community-fragility/

Emma gives indepth insight into the project, the context in which was made and the state of the arts industry today. We suggest you give it a read, its well worth it!! 

Thanks for the shout out guys, its an honour to be in Lip !

Reviewed! Crumbling Ecologies in The Age

Check out Dylan Rainforth's article on Crumbling Ecologies- A Dying Art?

 

The text reads - 

A Dying Art? Across Australia's universities, specialist craft departments - glass, ceramics, tapestries, metals and jewellery - are being shut. The situation has become so bad that according to artist Jasmine Targett, when she applied for an arts grant for her current Craft Victoria exhibition Crimbling Ecologies (opening tomorrow night), Monash University - where she is doing her PHD - had a ceramics department; by the time she came to make the work, it did not. Targett worked with students, teachers and artists over a three-month period to create thousands of fragile porcelain geranium leaves (pictured) symbolising this fragile craft ecology. And Targett is going further to ensure specialist skills don't die out. This Saturday she has organised a Skills Swap Meet for sharing knowledge and skills. "The idea of the Skills Swap Meet is to get away from the institution, to learn from each other the old-fashioned way of passing down skills person to person," Targett says. craftvic.org.au

Crumbling Ecologies Opens at Craft Victoria!

I was thrilled and overwhelmed by the floods of people that came to the opening of Crumbling Ecologies at Craft Victoria. 

The exhibition was opened by Grace Cochrane, former senior curator from the Powerhouse Museum Sydney. Grace gave insight into the unfolding story behind the works. To read Grace's Speech click here- http://www.crumblingecologies.blogspot.com.au/p/speech-notes-by-grace-cochrane.html

It was great getting to see all of the makers from the project come together for the opening and finally get to meet!

All of Melbourne's art school community of movers and shakers filled the space with lively debate about the ongoing issues the work raises....

 Above, one of the Project participants artist Suse Scholem talking about how the work was made and the delicacy of the porcelain leaves.

Getting down and dirty... taking a closer look... and selecting a few to take home.

 

I visited the work today at Craft Victoria and was delighted to see that lots of the leaves have been collected and taken home by the audience. Its exciting to see the work evolving and taking on a new life as it reaches out to the community. If you happen to have taken some leaves, please email us an image of where your lives have found their home in your life - jasminetargett (at) hotmail (dot) com

a sneak peak at the Crumbling Ecologies Project....

I have had a few requests for a sneak peak into the goings on at Crumbling Ecologies Head Quarters .... you may have heard me talking about a series of solo works called The Beauty of Weeds that will accompany the other works in the exhibition.....


the sketch quick sketch- hand blown glass museum domes, fused into the surface of the tables from my studio that we have been making the bulk of the project on.

Blowing the Glass Museum Domes... A special thank you to Laurel, Tegan and Kirstin for their help with these big mama domes - you were amazing, I think we broke the Monash hot shop record for the size of bubbles being blown! Laurel your skills are amazing!


The tables from the studio have evolved as the project has. In a way the studio space in which the work was created has become so much a part of the work that it has become infused with the work itself. Check out its transformation in progress from the studio to nearly being completed....


Inside the domes will sit the plants I have been growing from the excess plant waste salvaged from the rest of the project. The next stage of the work will happen all in the gallery space on installation day, the fusion of - Art School - Studio Space - Gallery and Museum will become complete!

20 Sydney Artists join in the Crumbling Ecologies Project

I was delighted to receive an email from Bridget Kennedy a few months ago titled 'i love your beautiful project'. A NSW based artist, Bridget banded together a group of passionate artists to spend a Sunday in Sydney making a large batch of porcelain geranium leaves to contribute to our growing installation. The team of makers included - James McCallum, Szilvia Gyorgy, Bridget Kennedy, Corrine Fisher, Hannah Fisher, Emilie Fisher, Jude Belnick, Maddy Ghosh,Helen Earl, Ximena Tapia, Zeynep Bayraktar, Canbora Bayraktar, Rose Daridis, Brooke Thompson, Beau Thompson, Lucie Macany, Vicki Grima, Zoe Brand, Melanie Ihnen and Nina Still.

The merry bunch worked for hours through the piles upon piles of geraniums. I was delighted to see them using some good new techniques...


The day took place in ceramic artist Szilvia Gyorgy's studio in Sydney. They filled her studio kiln to the brim with geraniums. Here are some fantastic images from before and after firing from inside the kiln.
I can't wait to receive Bridget's parcel filled with the bounty of their porcelain beauties. I would especially like to thank Bridget and Szilvia for their generosity and time, for donating their materials and studio.


Where will the Crumbling Ecologies Project go to next?

Northcote Pottery sign up to sponsor Crumbling Ecologies

We are delighted to announce that Northcote Pottery will be sponsoring the Crumbling Ecologies Project.

This week I got to meet Ray and the team from Northcote, they helped me load and unload their enormous kiln. I was filled with pride seeing it flooded with hundreds of porcelain Geraniums.


I am so grateful to everyone that has opened up their classrooms, homes and kilns to help out with the project!

Crumbling Ecologies Project contributing artist Jess McCausland's exciting new work

Our first contributing artist Jess McCausland has been busy drawing and writing and making things.... after working on the Crumbling Ecologies Project, Jess created this delicate and delicious illustration. I want it!
























her bio is in the artists involved page

here is a little preview of Jess on - Jess is on a visual and textural journey/mission. she liked ceramics already and now likes porcelain too. she has a lot of drawings that are waiting to be transformed from just visual into also textural and put into a kiln. she is also interested in fabric disguises....

The Crumbling Ecologies Project goes National

We are pleased to announce the Australian Ceramics Association's support of the Crumbling Ecologies Project. Since publicising the project nationally I have been getting emails every few hours from artists across Australia wanting to get involved. This is completely unexpected and very exciting!!

The ACA will be monitoring and contributing to the project through out it's development. We will be working together to publish an article in the Australian Journal of Ceramics later in the year.

New from the studio today....our first batch of Porcelain Geranium leaves have come out of the kiln and they have cast beautifully!


















a few hundred more batches and we should be nearly there : )

a big thank you to Sharon and Jess for their contribution.

Tethered

Crumbling Ecologies explores the idea that our life support system is tethered to an ecosystem of universal proportions from which no part is immune from the changes of its counterparts. There is an inescapable explosion of reaction through out the natural system that marks the shape of things to come.

In times of such economic crisis both art and environmental conservation funding is often limited. As a result the learning infrastructures that support artistic practice in Melbourne have changed, raising questions on the relevancy of craft within contemporary arts practice.

On closer inspection these delicate hand crafted leaves on the brink of crumbling embody the story of their makers. Porcelain is a material known for its strength; using the material in this way comments on the loss of educators and the knowledge their hands pass on.

Call Out to Artists and Crafters!

Artists and Crafters wanted to make thousands upon thousands of hand cast porcelain Geranium Leaves. No prior skills necessary, we will teach you the rest!

The Crumbling Ecologies Project will use thousands of hand cast porcelain geranium leaves to create a large installation in Gallery 1 at Craft Victoria, April 2012.

As a volunteering artist, what's in it for me?

-All artists involved in making the work will be credited in the exhibition at Craft Victoria.

-The fabrication of the work will be photographically documented form an artist zine to accompany the exhibition.

-You will learn a new skill to add to your arsenal: how to hand cast organic material into porcelain.

-The opportunity to become a part of the Creative Network: an independent group of artists and crafters that will share their skills with one another and collaborate on future art projects.

How much time will this take?

-You can come for an hour, you can come for a day, you can stay for the week- its totally up to you.

What will be done with the Geranium Leaves I make?

-The Crumbling Ecologies Project will use thousands of hand cast porcelain geranium leaves that on closer inspection appear on the brink of crumbling, embodying the story of their makers to create a large installation in Gallery 1 at Craft Victoria, April 2012.

-The leaves will be free for audience members visiting the gallery to take some if they wish. It is the aim of the project that through this interactive quality of the work we will be able to give back to the community, reach out to our audience and stimulate a dialogue on the role of the hand made in our everyday lives.

Does it cost anything?

-No.

Do I need to bring anything?

-Yourself, an apron, some food and drink.

Where will the making take place?

-in a studio in Caulfield, Victoria (about 20mins from Melbourne CBD)

If you would like to be involved in the project in any capacity please contact-

Jasmine - 0416 006 990, email - jasminetargett@hotmail.com

The Crumbling Ecologies Project Begins!

So, what is the Crumbling Ecologies Project about?

-overview

The Crumbling Ecologies Project uses the ecological conundrum as a metaphor to discuss crumbling diversity and sustainability in Melbourne’s diminishing arts schools. The works presented critically address how the economic climate has affected the infrastructures that support artistic practice in Melbourne, commenting on how the culture of learning is changing.

The project’s distinct objective is to bring together the group of artists impacted and activate a Creative Network of makers independent of the Universities and TAFEs through making a large collaborative installation to be presented- April 2012 at Craft Victoria. The aim of the Creative Network is to stimulate future independent art initiatives and collaborations, to ensure that craft practice in Melbourne endures this time of change.

-the work

Crumbling Ecology is a large collaborative installation to be made with the assistance of volunteering artists who wish to comment on how the closure of Melbourne’s craft based studios will impact their ongoing arts practice. The installation will feature hand made geraium leaves that upon closer inspection appear on the brink of crumbling, embodying the story of their makers.

-contact

All artists involved in making the work will be credited in the exhibition at Craft Victoria. The fabrication of the work will also be photographically documented form an artist zine to accompany the exhibition.

Please get in contact with Jasmine if you would like to get involved in the project-

0416 006 990

jasminetargett@hotmail.com

use the tools you have, use the tools you have